AWN Headline News

On Wednesday, December 6,

2000, Comedy Central will start an eight-week run of comedian Robert

Smigel's TV FUNHOUSE, a live-action satire of 1950s children's shows

including twisted cartoons. Animated shorts include "Wonderman," a

superhero who uses his super powers to line-up dates for his alter

ego and "The Baby, The Immigrant and the Guy on Mushrooms," each of

whom always says, "Ahhhhhh." "I get a lot of pleasure out of writing

things that maybe I couldn't have WRITTEN when I was 10 years old,

Volumes 5 and 6 of the MONSTER RANCHERS TV series are hitting video stores across America on December 5, 2000. In volume 5 "Moo Attacks!," Genki and friends with the help of some dragons set out to rescue Holly after she is kidnapped by Moo. In volume 6 "Big Baddies & Brave Buddies," Genki and gang must navigate some choppy seas and get cornered in a city rune by unruly robots. Each volume contains three episodes and volumes 1-4 are currently available. The dubbed VHS tapes retail for US$9.99 each.

ADV Films will be heating up homes for the holidays with the fourth volume of the SAKURA DIARIES. When Urara plans her life around her boyfriend, Tomoe, her relationship with her cousin Touma becomes very strained. The rating of this series is 17 years +. Volume 4 will hit stores on December 5, 2000. All four English-dubbed volumes retail for US$19.98 each.

Click 3X, a digital commercial studio, has added award-winning effects veteran Glen Bennett to their Los Angeles team. Bennett, who has worked in video and digital effects since 1986, was a pioneer in the use of Discreet Logic's Flame* software, winning a Monitor Award for Best Special Effects in 1995 for the Guinness "Enigma" spot directed by Michael Hausseman. He received the 1998 MVPA Award for Best Visual FX for his work on 311's music video "Transistor" directed by Jay Papke. Click 3X VP, executive producer Phyllis Nix said, "What can I say?

ViewPoint Studios has zapped up the relaunch of technology channel ZDTV as TechTV with a new ID campaign. The ViewPoint team developed concepts based on both the evolution of the network and the personality of the new logo. In a montage of live-action and visual effects work, a biological twist turns simple cell division into the logo at the microscopic level. Another ID gives a science lesson that demonstrates the fundamentals of logo conception. Maya was used to create the animation. "There were very few limitations," said ViewPoint Studios' design director, Michael Frederick.

The first two-hour installment of the Sci-Fi Channel's mini-series FRANK HERBERT'S DUNE broke the network's ratings records. The Sunday, December 3 9 pm broadcast scored a 4.6 rating and reached 3.06 million households. The final two installments aired on Monday and Tuesday at 9 pm. The previous record was set in June with the premiere of Sci-Fi's THE INVISIBLE MAN, which garnered a 2.4 rating in cable homes, reaching 1.534 million households. Sci-Fi has signed John Harrison, the writer-director of the first six-hour mini-series, to write and direct a sequel.

Fox's THE SIMPSONS scored increased numbers this past week with a 9 rating/13 share in a five way tie for 28th place. Specials ruled the animated field with CBS' broadcast of the Rankin/Bass classics FROSTY THE SNOWMAN and FROSTY RETURNS. The December 3 8 pm airing of FROSTY THE SNOWMAN garnered a 5.9 rating/11 share with the 8:30 follow-up broadcast of FROSTY RETURNS also pulling a 5.9 rating but with a 10 share. ABC's Sunday night animated specials were close behind with the 7:30 broadcast of TANGERINE BEAR: HOME IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS receiving a 5.8 rating/9 share.

Animation house Film Roman has filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission to keep the company's stock traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. On November 28, 2000, Nasdaq notified Film Roman that it no longer met the minimum price to keep its listing on the Nasdaq Small Cap Exchange. Regulations say that if a stock price slips below US$1 per share for more than 30 days it risks being pulled from the market. Film Roman will defend its stance that its stock should continue to be traded at a hearing on December 19. At Monday's close, Film Roman stock was priced at $.56 per share.

Fox 2000 has brought Ron "Gustin" Parker in to write the action-comedy-mystery feature script for THE HARDY MEN. The story will feature grown-up feuding Hardy Boys, who must re-team to save their kidnapped father. The original idea for the project came to Fox four years ago by writer Michael Sargent. Parker, who has sold his scripts TYPHOID HARRY to Paramount Pictures and IMAGING NATHAN to Universal Pictures, will do a complete rewrite of the original Sargent script.

Oxygen Media, the year-old television/Internet media company dedicated to programming for women, has received a hefty investment of US$100 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. Allen's investment firm was an early fund supplier to the fledgling network. The channel has struggled since its inception to find major cable systems to carry its programming. Oxygen was founded by Gerry Laybourne, the former president of Nickelodeon, who helped build the children's network into one of the top rated cable channels in the U.S. and around the world.

Creative Planet, Inc., a business-to-business solutions firm for the film and TV production industries and parent company of Animation World Network, has announced that it has received US$30 million in financing from United News & Media PLC, a $6 billion media and market information company based in London. In addition, Creative Planet has acquired United News "The Knowledge," an industry-standard database of film and TV production professionals in the U.K and Ireland. As part of the deal, United News gains exclusive sales and marketing rights in the U.K.

Stockholm animation studio Filmtecknarna F. Animation has finished a 30-second animated spot as part of a series of ads for PDFA, the Partnership for a Drug Free America. The 3D/cel animated spot utilizes the graphic style found on rave posters and flyers. The commercial follows a cel animated boy through a computer-generated city where he is attacked by drug-peddling, robot bugs and is only saved by the music from his headphones.